


Tacit

by talekayler



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU
Genre: Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-06
Updated: 2014-01-06
Packaged: 2018-01-07 16:03:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1121820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/talekayler/pseuds/talekayler
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some things shouldn't need words.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tacit

The waves from the bay slap against the edges of the city, spraying it with sea and salt and making the ground darker with each lingering touch. The swell is loud enough to draw attention, but never enough to drown out the noise of the city behind him. Never enough to quell it. 

Gotham Bay has never been calm, Jason thinks, staring out at the reflection of the moon on the water. Just like the city itself. 

He doesn’t even know what he’s doing here. In all honesty, he shouldn’t be. Any second, he’ll turn away, turn his back on all of this, and stop digging at old wounds. 

But he can’t. And he knows Bruce won’t either. 

So he waits, and meets the wind as it pushes through his hair; he can’t wear the hood and do this.

“I don’t know why you bother.”

His voice echoes off the rocks of the rough shore, swallowed by the sea and the city. He can’t be sure how long Bruce has been there, or if he’s even there at all. But he figures if he isn’t, all the better. The words burn his throat as they’re formed, and having to look at the bleak and eerie eyes of the cowl would just make everything worse. 

The air is silent around him; it hums with tension. The water is dappled with silver on this unusually clear night, and his breath fogs the air. He counts eight of them before speaking again. 

“I’m not your chosen heir or your resident genius, or hell, related to you by blood or anything, so there’s no obligation. I’m the Robin who shouldn’t have been – the mistake. The one that got too far out of control. It would be easier to just… forget that I was another of your Robins. There’s nothing to salvage.” _What makes you keep trying?_

“Not a mistake,” Bruce says, and if Jason listens closely enough, he can hear his boots as they make contact with the ground. “And not my failure. The one _I_ failed, though? Yes.”

The silence is tangible, and the city at their backs is quiet in anticipation… regret, sorrow. _Hope._

“That’s not something I let go.” _I’m not giving up on you._

Jason doesn’t dare turn to look. He’s not sure if he’d be able to stop in time before he does something he’ll regret.

“I can’t–” he starts, breaks, and swallows. “I can’t just go back to the way things were–” _I don’t want to._ “–the way I used to be.” _The way a Robin should be._

“I know,” Bruce says. He’s standing so close now, shoulder to shoulder as they look out over the bay. Jason’s arm feels hot, tingles as if with a phantom touch. _I understand._

And of course he does. Because sometimes, Jason had the feeling that Bruce knew him better than he did himself. Just as often, he knows that they come from two different worlds, and the only thing Bruce gets about him are the things he imagines, the things he wants to be true. 

“I’ll try.” His voice sounds like it’s been stripped with sandpaper and set to burn. _Lies._ He wants to.

He wants it to be easy. 

“So will I.”

A beat, then Bruce is gone, winging off into the night and born into it again and again. Gotham welcomes her Knight back.

He could follow, Jason knows. But not yet, not like that. Not now. 

Maybe not ever. _Gotham will wait for him. ___

__Jason breathes in the brine of the air and tells himself that the salt on his cheeks is from the spray of the sea._ _


End file.
